


Exit, Pursued by a Bear

by ashley_in_the_know



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Character Death, Gen, Light Angst, playing off of the idea that a ranger's animal companion gains their person's life-span
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:13:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23251513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashley_in_the_know/pseuds/ashley_in_the_know
Summary: “Aren’t you coming, Trinket?”He huffs and walks over to butt his head against her thigh. What a silly question.Where else would he go, but with Vex?
Relationships: Trinket & Vex'ahlia (Critical Role)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 105
Collections: Folk Tales of Exandria





	Exit, Pursued by a Bear

**Author's Note:**

> This was my contribution to the Folk Tales of Exandria fic zine! A massive shout out goes to sparxwrites for all of their hard work organizing the zine, and please go shower all of the amazing authors with love and praise.

_ He doesn’t know who this strange creature is that’s picking him up, she’s certainly not his mama, but he feels safe cradled in her arms. Even though she’s shaking and her face is wet with tears and she smells like the Bad Things, he feels safe. She presses her face against his snout and starts making noises at him. _

_ “It’s alright, darling, I’ve got you,” she says. She scratches behind his ears, and he growls happily. “I’ll take care of you, I promise.” They’re moving now, walking away from his mama. He whines, starts squirming in her arms. _

_ She holds him tighter and keeps walking, but he manages to squirm out of her grasp and run back to his mama. His mama, who isn’t moving, isn’t making noise, isn’t breathing. A twig snaps behind him, and he turns to see Her kneeling on the ground. “I’m sorry, buddy.” A sob. “There was nothing I could do. I’m so sorry.” She holds her arms out for him and he goes to her, lets her bundle him against her chest again. “I may not be your mother, but I’m going to take care of you. I’ll never leave you alone, I promise.” _

_ He believes her. _

* * *

Trinket wakes from his dream with a snort. He yawns, shakes the remnants of sleep from his head as he ponders his dream. His first memory of Vex. It’s been a frequent dream lately, and he doesn’t know why. It’s confusing, especially for a bear as old as Trinket.

He’s stretching, trying to alleviate aching bones and popping joints, when the chamber door opens and Vex walks in. She beams at him. “There you are, buddy,” she croons, scratching him behind the ears. He leans into her, but not too hard. It takes her so much longer to get up now if he accidentally knocks her on her rump. “I thought you were going to sleep the day away.”

Trinket huffs and butts against her gently. “I know, darling,” she says through a small yawn. “Like I have any room to talk.”

They take a meandering path through the castle and out into the gardens. Vex is resting on one of the small benches when one of the many young de Rolos approaches, a piece of parchment in his hand. Trinket doesn’t remember this one’s name, there are so many and he is a  _ very  _ old bear, but he looks so much like Uncle Vax that it makes Trinket’s heart ache. Vex’s too. She’s told Trinket so many times.

“Grandmother,” he says, handing her the parchment. “Lady Keyleth’s reply came quicker than expected.”

“Thank you, Hugo, darling,” she says, searching her pockets for something.

The lad doesn’t leave immediately. “Did you want any help reading her letter, Grandmother?”

Vex fixes him with a stern look as she locates Papa Percy’s spectacles and adjusts them on her nose. “I’ve got it handled, Hugo,” she says. “I’m not blind. And even if I were, your Auntie Keyleth writes so large, I’d still be able to read it.”

Hugo flushes and fidgets with his cravat. “I apologize, Grandmother. I’ll leave you to it.” He kisses her on the cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she says, her gaze softening. “Now, don’t you have an archery lesson to get to?”

His eyes go wide as he pulls out a pocket watch. “Shit.” He grins at her sheepishly. “I should go.”

“Make me proud, darling,” she calls out as he runs off.

Hugo’s voice echoes through the garden as he calls back, “I’ll do my best!”

“Dear boy,” she says softly, shaking her head with a fond smile. She pets Trinket absentmindedly as she reads Keyleth’s letter, only pausing twice to cough harshly into a handkerchief. “Sorry, buddy,” she murmurs when he makes a noise of complaint.

Vex reads the letter three times before she seems satisfied. Trinket takes the opportunity to doze in the mid-morning sunlight. He daydreams about the early days with Vex; learning to track and hunt, protecting her from bandits, swimming in rivers, playing in fields, sleeping by campfires. His mind wanders to their days with Vox Machina. To adventures in strange places, the monsters they fought, and all of the strange, wonderful things they did as a family.

He doesn’t realize that he’s fallen asleep again until Vex is shaking him awake. There’s a strange expression on her face. Something tired and sad, but determined all the same. She’s kneeling on the ground beside him, and when he tries to ask her what’s wrong, she simply wraps her arms around his neck, buries her face in his fur, and breathes in as deep as she can.

“Come for a walk with me, buddy?” she asks. “Kiki’s waiting for us at your uncle’s shrine.” There’s concern in her eyes as he struggles to his feet, holding back a groan of pain. “Only if you can manage it, darling. I can put you in the necklace if you can’t.”

Trinket snorts, determined to show her that he can still keep up. She’s barely made it to her feet before he’s making his way toward the Parchwood, toward that familiar path that leads to a clearing and a pretty stone bench.

Vex catches up to him, puts a hand on his shoulder to slow his walk. “It’s alright, Trinket, there’s no need to rush.” She smiles down at him. “We have all the time in the world.”

* * *

Keyleth, Pike, and Scanlan are waiting at the shrine, talking quietly amongst themselves, when Vex finally crests the hill into the clearing. Trinket, who has been stubbornly struggling to keep pace with her, bellows happily and flops down on the grass next to Keyleth. Vex takes a moment to catch her breath while Pike and Keyleth lavish attention on her bear. She pointedly ignores their eyes on her as she settles herself, curling up next to Trinket like she has for decades.

They’ve all gone silent, though Keyleth is still absently petting Trinket’s snout. Up close, Vex can see that Pike’s eyes are red and puffy, Keyleth’s sleeves are stained with tears and snot, and Scanlan is fiddling with his shawm, as if he’s trying to think of the perfect song for the occasion. Her chest aches, and not from the disease that seized her so many years ago and refuses to let go. She’s never wanted to hurt them, which is why she’s so determined now to not drag this out any longer.

Keyleth is the one to break the silence, shaky and uncertain. “Vex, your letter…” She sniffles, hiccups. “A-are you sure?”

She nods slowly, closing her eyes against the tears that spill over when Scanlan’s sob echoes through the clearing.

Pike’s warm hands close around hers, and Vex forces herself to meet her earnest gaze. “You don’t have to give up, Vex,” she says desperately. “There are so many routes we haven’t tried yet. Maybe Sarenrae can-”

“Pike.” She cuts the gnome off gently. “We’ve had forty years to find a cure for this. I don’t think there is one. And I’m so fucking tired, darling.”

“Vex…”

“Just stop,  _ please _ .” She draws in a sharp breath. “Just listen. I’m so tired. I’ve somehow outlived my brother and my husband and all of my children, and I’m so tired of fighting. I just want to rest.”

“But,” Keyleth starts tentatively, “what about Whitestone? What about your legacy?”

“Percy was the one obsessed with legacy, not me,” she says. “And I think our legacy is well secured, besides. Whitestone is in good hands, Kiki. And I’m little more than an old woman who sees ghosts in the faces of children.”

“Hey now, don’t sell yourself short,” Scanlan says, sniffling. “You’ve also got the best rack of any 133 year-old I’ve met.”

That gets a watery laugh from Keyleth and Pike, punctuated by a loud snore from Trinket. Vex leans back against her bear, tears dripping into his fur as she listens to his heartbeat.

“This decision isn’t just for me,” she says after a few minutes. “It’s for Trinket, too.”

Scanlan frowns. “How does your death help Trinket?” he asks.

Vex sniffles, her tears falling faster. “Barring external forces, Trinket can’t pass on until I do,” she explains. “His life force is bound to mine. He lives as long as I do. He  _ suffers  _ as long as I do.”

“Wait,  _ really _ ?”

“You really didn’t realize?” Pike sighs. “Scanlan, how long did you think grizzly bears could live?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know. In case you hadn’t noticed, bears aren’t exactly my thing.”

“Well, I can assure you that 120 years is  _ not  _ a normal lifespan,” Vex says. She strokes a hand through his gray fur. “He sleeps all the time, he’s in constant pain. He tries to hide it, but I know my buddy. It isn’t fair for me to ask him to keep living like this, but I couldn’t… I could never…”

She dissolves into sobs, muffling her grief in Trinket’s fur until he shifts underneath her, trying to maneuver so he can comfort her. “It’s alright, buddy, I’m alright,” she lies. “You can go back to sleep, darling. Mummy’s fine.” She scritches at a particular spot behind his ears, and after a few minutes, he’s fallen back to sleep.

She looks up from tending to Trinket to find her friends watching her, their eyes full of sympathy. Keyleth is the first one to nod.

“Okay,” she says. “Okay, Vex.”

She wraps Vex in a tight embrace, tears soaking Vex’s hair. “I can’t believe I’m gonna be the last member of Team Half-Elf left.”

Vex laughs. “You always knew you were going to be.” She kisses her softly, then touches their foreheads together. “Kaitiake, Kiki.”

“Kaitiake, Vex.”

Pike approaches next, simply wraps her arms around Vex and cries into her shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she whispers.

“Don’t be,” she says. “You did everything you could.” She kisses the top of Pike’s head. “I love you, Pickle.”

“Love you, too, Vex.”

Scanlan has tears streaming down his face when she hugs him close and whispers, “Take care of them.”

“Of course,” he says, and she feels his lips press against her cheek. “On one condition.”

She arches an eyebrow at him. “And what would that be?”

“I get to light your pyre.”

She sighs, thinking back to the disaster that was Grog’s funeral. “Fine,” she relents. “But if you burn my forest down, I will haunt your ass for eternity.”

“Just my ass?” he says with a salacious waggle of his eyebrows. “Kinky.”

Vex shakes her head. “I’ll miss you, too, you perv.”

Once they’ve all left the clearing, Vex sinks back against Trinket, suddenly exhausted. Without Pike’s healing magic coursing through her, she can feel her lungs starting to seize, making each breath more and more difficult. She takes a breath that turns into a harsh coughing fit that ends with her on all fours, dry heaving. She looks up into Trinket’s worried eyes and wipes blood from her mouth. “It’s okay, Trinket,” she manages, crawling towards him. “We can rest now.”

She curls into Trinket’s warmth and closes her eyes.

* * *

Trinket wakes from his nap with a loud yawn, immediately squinting his eyes against the bright light flooding the clearing.

“There you are, sleepyhead!” Vex’s voice calls to him from the path back to Whitestone. “If we don’t get going soon, we’re going to miss lunch.”

Trinket gets up, barely noticing that it isn’t the painful struggle he’s endured for years. He takes a few steps towards Vex, then stops, cocking his head curiously. There must be some kind of magic in this clearing, because his Vex is young again; tall and proud, grinning like they’re about to embark on an adventure.

“What’s wrong, buddy?”

“Nothing,” he answers, shaking the last bit of sleep from his head. Something catches his eye, and he looks back over his shoulder. There’s nothing there. Nothing but a very old bear and a very old woman curled up together by a stone bench. He turns back to Vex, who smiles at him brightly.

“Aren’t you coming, Trinket?”

He huffs and walks over to butt his head against her thigh. What a silly question.

Where else would he go, but with Vex?


End file.
